Trevor Mahlman
On Thursday, senior Boeing executives leading the Space Launch System program, including David Dutcher and Steve Snell, convened an all-hands meeting of more than 1,000 rocket employees.
Officials announced a significant number of layoffs and reassignments of people working on the program, according to two people familiar with the meeting. They cited several reasons for the cuts, including the fact that the schedule for NASA’s Artemis moon mission, which uses the SLS rocket, is shifting to the right.
Late Thursday, a Boeing spokesperson confirmed the cuts to Ars in a statement provided to Ars, saying, “Due to external factors unrelated to program performance, Boeing We are reviewing and making adjustments.”
Is it better late than never?
For nearly 15 years, Boeing has led the development of the core stage of the giant SLS rocket that NASA plans to use to launch the Orion spacecraft on a manned mission to the moon.
The contract is lucrative for Boeing, but has come under considerable criticism over the years because of its sheer size, as NASA spends tens of billions of dollars developing rockets that reuse the Space Shuttle’s main engines and other elements. There is. The rocket was originally scheduled to debut in late 2016 or 2017, but its first flight actually took place in November 2022. NASA’s inspector general also once called Boeing’s management of the SLS rocket program “poor.” . ”
But when the SLS rocket debuted a year and a half ago, it performed exceptionally well in lifting the unmanned Orion spacecraft towards the moon. After this mission, NASA declared the rocket “operational,” and Boeing began producing rockets for future missions to carry astronauts to the moon.
So, in a sense, these cuts were inevitable. Boeing required a lot of resources to design, develop, test, and write the software for the rocket. Now that the development phase is over, it makes sense for the company to scale back its core-stage development activities.
Boeing’s statement did not say so, but sources told Ars that the layoffs could ultimately extend to hundreds of employees. These will be distributed across the company’s rocket facilities, primarily in Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida. This reduction will impact both the Core Stage Program and the Exploration Upper Stage Program, a new upper stage of the rocket that is also beginning to transition from development to production.
waiting for other elements
When Boeing refers to “external factors,” it is referring to schedule delays for NASA’s Artemis program. In January, space agency officials announced that the Artemis II human mission to the moon would be delayed by about a year to September 2025. And the moon landing Artemis III until his September 2026. Neither of these schedules are set in stone. Artemis II could be further delayed, and Artemis III could also be delayed if NASA sticks to its current mission plan.
The SLS rocket is on track to be ready in time for the current schedule barring catastrophe, but other factors are in doubt. As for Artemis II, NASA has not yet cleared the Orion spacecraft’s heat shield issue. The issue must be resolved before the mission is given the green light to continue next year.
The challenge is even greater for Artemis III. For that mission, NASA needs a lunar spacesuit provided by Axiom Space, as well as a lunar lander provided by SpaceX along with its own Starship vehicle. Both of these elements remain firmly in place during the development stage.
Additionally, NASA is also grappling with budget issues. For the first time in more than a decade, the agency is facing budget cuts. This week, Space Agency Administrator Bill Nelson told Congress, “We have less funding, so we have to make some very tough choices.” That could include using his future SLS funds to enhance other elements of Artemis.
One of the people familiar with Thursday’s internal Boeing meeting said the space agency visited the company earlier this year and effectively said Boeing would receive less funding as SLS development ends. The company was given the option to either “scale up” the funding it receives or pause it for a year due to the delay in the Artemis mission. Boeing chose to stretch its funding, which was a factor in this week’s cuts.
It would be easy but unfair to blame SpaceX and Axiom for delays in future Artemis missions. Congress developed the SLS rocket under an authorization bill in 2010, but Boeing actually received funding for related work. Back in 2007. In contrast, NASA began funding the development of the Starship lunar lander until late 2021, and it wasn’t until 2022 that it began funding the development of the Axiom spacesuit. In some ways, these developments are as technically demanding as, if not more than, the development of the SLS rocket.
